Pimlach

Levi - only because we spent too many years in goalie hell and I am shell shocked by it. Keep UPL, keep Levi, and let them play. Benson - he plays the right way The only Sabre I would not want to lose right now is Dahlin. Imagine his 25 minutes per game gone.

He is decent but let NJ have him and lets add some skill AND grizzle.

No. Just no.

Skinner's mother probably did it while hoping he ends up on a contender.

Very few seem to get this. Winning a trade is not the point of making a trade. Take the Mitts-Byram trade. Lets all buy in to the notion that Byram has more upside and will be the better player, even if that never happens. Did the Sabres get better? So far I say no because the hole left by Mitts is much greater than whatever Byram is bringing on defense. Until they add a center at Mitts level or better, the team was weakened by the trade. They have the picks/prospects to add a 2C and they need to do it. I can rant about the Cozens contract next. He is playing 3C level of hockey (sometime less), yet people say I am wrong to want Adams to add a 2C, all because Cozens makes 2C money. Not my fault that Adams blew the Cozens contract, along with Ullmark, Reinhart, etc.

Murray, Boterill, Adams - none of them were ready for the job. Who did not know, besides Terry Pegula that is, that these guys were over their heads. Reading Lance's stupid BN article about the Mitts trade put me in a sour mood this morning.

I had boxes upon boxes of cards - baseball, AFL football, NFL football, NHL, and NBA cards. All bought in nickel wax packs with a slab of stale crappy gum. Circa 1964 to 1973. I also had Beatles, Monkees, Batman, etc… I’m not a collector, when I stopped that was it.

Probably. If you are referring to Cozens, he will eventually produce more but he should play on the line that helps the team the most. If we get someone that improves on Mitts he would push Cozens down, which might help him and the team a lot. Ruff isn’t going to think about contracts when making his lines.

This 11OA pick could yield a good forward as is discussed in other threads. Do we want to wait 3-4 more years though? Kappo - no. Don’t want him. Especially not for 11 this year. Necas - maybe. Probably not though. I’d wait to see the draft board before I made that trade. There are forwards that may be worth the risk and the wait to draft ahead of Necas. I’m not crazy about what Necas brings and would prefer similar scoring with more rough n’ tumble play thrown in. If we are trading the #1 pick, I would package it to get a center that is an upgrade to Mitts AND subsequently to Cozens for that matter. Make an old fashioned hockey trade Kevyn. Use your many assets to UPGRADE the hole that Mitts left, plus you have Bryam, then I start to get happy that the team is actually improving.

My strong recollection is that Tkachuk brought up Kyle on his own. He just added it in there casually in his response to something. I would have to double check on Maurice.

Well, it could just be a coincidence that the BPA both times they picked first overall was a defenseman. Playing a defense first style also applies to forwards. Having a strong center spline, winning faceoffs and getting puck possession is important to playing strong defense. And for all the forward depth that we have in the pipeline, Benson comes along and makes the team at 18 and makes it impossible for Adams to send him down, or even to let him play in the Worlds.

All signs that he falls in love with his players and his prospects. You failed to mention that he has gone on record as saying that other teams love his prospects, and teams ask more from him than from other teams. I think that is a bit kooky. Then again he "talked" to lots of veteran NHL coaches about the coaching job. Even though several have said they never heard from him.

I don't know about that. If we can land a 2C what is wrong with TT as your 1C and Cozens your 3C? We cannot have Krebs as a 3C and Jost as the 4C, which is how we finished the season. That just cannot happen. We need to add a 2C and a 4C IMO. Lets get strong up the middle.

You didn’t hear the interview with Tkachuk or Paul Maurice. They think you’re wrong.

No. People were saying this about the Mitts trade too. That maybe the core was too comfortable. Nonsense. The Skinner contract was a bad one and it time to move in from it. It’s that simple.

Working out at the Boulevard Twin Rinks

They have two of the best players in the entire league in McKinnon and Maker, plus many other good players in support. Expect them to win? No. But every season is different and the Avs have a lot of pluses to go with the negatives.

Are you saying the Sabres are making moves so that they don't get too good? They already had Quinn and Mitts, Adams job is to make the roster better. To my thinking we just cannot fully evaluate the Mitts trade until we see, (1) who they replace Mitts with; and (2) how Byram plays over a full season. Is Byram a top 4 or top 2 guy and why did Colorado think otherwise? Does Byram really bring what we need given we have Dahlin and Power? I wanted a top 4 guy that moves people out of the space in front of UPL. I still do and I saw a ton of that in the Cup final. As for Adams not ever talking to Mitts agent about an extension, that speak volumes.

Then we can start a thread on eating bread.

Here we sit, all of us are skeptical on how they will use the savings. We are so far from the days of "drill another well" and "hockey heaven". This could the most important off season for the franchise since the Pegula Era started.

They have to replace his goals, and that does not mean expect more goals from Peterka, Benson and Quinn. We already expect more from all of them, they were 23rd in scoring as a team with Skinner, not nearly good enough.

And play at a minus 10 clip.

A team can put up to 52 names on the Cup for winning it. There are guidelines for this. I believe that Florida’s GM intends on putting Rick Dudley on from his administrative entries. He was allowed on the ice to hold the Cup.

That explains Draisaitl, ribs are essential McDavids numbers are even more impressive given the injury. Yes, warriors. They play with much pain at times.